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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233374">I Will Follow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin'>Aithilin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MerMay 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Canon-Typical Violence, Capture, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, M/M, Mer!Nyx, mentions of experimentation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:08:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,942</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233374</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nyx had never expected to get caught by the scientists of Niflheim. And he never expected to meet another prisoner he would grow attached to.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Noctis Lucis Caelum/Nyx Ulric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MerMay 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1730110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>79</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Hanged Man/Devil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompted over at my Tumblr for my MerMay: Mermaid Tarot challenge. </p>
<p>Hanged Man: sacrifice of self. <br/>Devil: being trapped by circumstances/things beyond your control</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the boats came, it was like an invasion. They had smothered the sunlight filtering through the surface, gathered together like a dark cloud over the once same shallows. These weren’t the simple wooden fishing boats or barely managed fishing fleets from the nearby coast; the boats that had arrived with a military formation and a smothering darkness were stark white in the gleaming sunlight, with a red wyvern crest like a gash across the pristine hull. </p>
<p>Nyx had seen them arrive in the dawn. He had seen them before, gleaming in the early morning light on the horizon. There had only been one or two of them then, like clouds skirting the edges of the shallows. He had watched divers pick and cut and pluck pieces of the reef that had offered his people shelter from the colder waters for generations. Fish disappeared in handfuls here and there, snatched up in nets and traps and stored— he had seen— in glass tanks on and beneath the flat decks. Observation windows opened to the colourful reef Nyx had once knew as his home, and he had watched from the safety of the shadows as humans in long robes seemed to stare back out at him. Those ones had been along the edges of the reef, had sent out divers and collectors where the waters were still deep enough to protect the boats. </p>
<p>This fleet of ships blotting out the morning sun were smaller, shallower. </p>
<p>Nyx had been the first to raise the alarm among those who had remained in the little village beneath the waves. </p>
<p>When the nets dropped, almost everyone had fled to the safety of the deeper waters. Almost everyone had dragged what little they had wth them, fleeing for the hidden kingdoms further in the dark and deep and dangerous waters where the daemons lurked with the sharks and squids and kraken. </p>
<p>Only Nyx had remained with Libertus and Crowe and Pelna to protect the retreat, to guard their people as they fled for safety from the invasion. </p>
<p>And Selena. </p>
<p>She had refused to leave without Nyx. Always trailing in his wake. </p>
<p>Now she was thrashing in a net, the shine of her favoured jewellery— the copper discs woven through her hair, along her skinny arms he had always teased her for, around her waist and so she sent clouds of delicate bubbles around her in her games— glittering as it tangled her further in the trap. And the ropes were being pulled taut as something on the boats above started reeling her in. </p>
<p>Nyx had already cut as many ropes as he could, the midnight of his tail almost obscured by the weight of those that had tangled around him in his rush to ease the escape of his people. They dragged along the delicate reef, tangling him against the living structure that had sheltered him for so many years. He cut away at the tangles where he could, but hurried to reach Selena before the net could fully be removed, his bone dagger slipping in his hands and chipping against the more solid stones scattered across the shallows as he tried to hurry. </p>
<p>When he reached Selena, she was almost at the surface. </p>
<p>He cut at the thick ropes enough for her to wiggle free, the fraying edges of the strange rope catching at her decorations like grasping hands trying to hold her in place. When the chain around her waist caught on the now loose nets, he twisted his arm through the tattered edges and snapped the light chain that had held his sister’s favoured decorations together. </p>
<p>His dagger dropped as she swam free, pulled to safety by Crowe.</p>
<p>Pulled away as Nyx realized that his arm was tangled in a knot of twisted rope. He tried to manoeuvre his way around the mess, the light of the surface a looming threat above him. The rough material at the rope scratched along his skin, his muscles burned as he reached for the dagger that had fallen too far below. He saw Libertus with his spear— the jagged tip too far  out of reach to help this time. </p>
<p>Breaking the surface was like hitting a wall. He gasped for breath as his mammalian lungs took over for the gills nestled along his neck. He felt the hot, hard deck of the ship for a moment before the cut and torn nets around him were lifted from the alien surface and he was suspended for the humans to examine. </p>
<p>He heard the shouts and orders barked echoing between the vessels, the splashing of the sea disturbed by the invasion of nets and traps and whatever other small vessels had been released to his waters. The cold air chilled him and his eyes adjusted just in time to see men in white robes— empty handed and confident— walking toward him. </p>
<p>The tangle of nets was released with the flash of a metal weapon. Already dazed and disoriented, Nyx fell back to the hard surface of the deck. He lashed out at the humans as they approached, as they threatened to peer over the edge of the boat and into the water where his family was likely still waiting. He lashed out with his tail and hands, buying them time to get to safety as he scrabbled for one of the shining weapons dropped by the humans who had cut him free. </p>
<p>His distraction worked, and and he saw the distinct rust colour of Libertus’ tail right before the world went black. </p>
<p>When he woke, it was to a world of sterile white floating before him. </p>
<p>Humans in their white robes wandered from counter to counter, the surfaces around him littered with stolen pieces of the reef. He let himself float, the confines of glass stilling the natural movement of the water he was in and amplifying the unnatural world he had been pulled into. The nets he had cut at and had been tangled in were laid out across one stark surface, he frayed edges leaving a pool of more familiar water to stagnate on the rocking floor. He saw his dagger, in a small tank and locked behind glass, set aside with the stolen pieces of reef and stone. Stolen fish swam in confused circles around him in their own isolated tanks, and Nyx made a face when his tail bumped into the glass. </p>
<p>He could taste the copper of blood lingering in the water and knew that the cuts and scrapes suffered during his captured had been no worse than he expected, the bruises already blossoming at a glance. One of the humans realized he was awake and a dozen faces were suddenly around him. </p>
<p>Excited chatter sounded like rocks dragging across the reef, muted by the glass and water, until it all blended into a single note of noise echoing against his prison. His head was throbbing in the stagnant water, the rocking of the ship a mockery of the open ocean out of sync with the sway of the containers. He reached up to the grated top of the tank and experimented with a tug to the prison bars; the heavy and final beat of the lock refusing to give way rang against the glass in response. </p>
<p>Nyx had barely noticed the change in faces and the newcomer who had approached. With the same confident stride as the man on the boat, Nyx assumed it was the same human— his face hidden behind a carefully groomed beard, thinning hair swept back, and cold eyes calculating as Nyx returned the icy gaze with his own glare— who had stopped just before him. </p>
<p>He heard the triumphant voice far clearer than he wanted, the man’s hands clasped before him as if wringing them would contain his excitement. </p>
<p>“What a wonderful specimen! Simply wonderful.”</p>
<p>Where ever they had taken him, it was cold. Very cold. Nyx could barely touch the glass of his prison as they moved him from the ship to some other vehicle. He had felt sick at the constant state of motion in the stagnant water, and worse when the frost had started to curl along the glass. He had found that the lock that kept him in place had been removed, but the metal and glass was frozen to the touch. </p>
<p>So frozen that it had burned to the touch when he pushed against it. </p>
<p>He settled for watching the world change around him, his head spinning. He woke several times on sterile tables, strapped in place while scales were cut from his tail, while flashes of light dimmed everything else around him. He woke to poking and prodding and the strange beeps and noises of the constant machines he was growing to hate. Drugs swimming through his system, until he was certain that every new morning would bring scalpels and dizzying pain. </p>
<p>The old man— Besithia, Nyx had come to learn— was a scholar. Or near enough. He was cold, and cruel, his assistants scattering away from him like schools of fish startled by the wake of his tail. He looked at Nyx like a shark looked at the world; cold and aloof, just moving forward through the water as if nothing could touch them. He viewed everything, everyone, as a subject to study. To pick apart and dissect. </p>
<p>When the haze wore off, Nyx woke in a larger tank in another sterile room. The steady thrum of a machine humming against the glass of the tank, creating tiny currents swirling around him in the water. The stale filter offering some reprieve from the cramped and stagnant water he had been travelling in. And not another soul to stare and watch and dissect as he stretched and moved and tried to take stock of the damage done when strapped beneath the staples and lights, his scales drying enough to simply be plucked from his tail. </p>
<p>Eventually, days, weeks when the haze had moved through his system and the white, cold, muted world became clearer and clearer. </p>
<p>“Can you speak?”</p>
<p>There had just been a young man who had started to visit. A dark smudge among the dull lab white. He wasn’t dressed in the robes as the scientists, but he was always there. Just beyond the glass when Nyx woke, dark hair spilling into his eyes and hands gripping the arms of the strange chair he sat in. </p>
<p>Nyx had watched him, they had watched each other. The boy in his chair moving without walking like the other humans, always seated, and always asking the same question. </p>
<p>“I’m from Lucis,” the young man said after some time. After some visits. One day when he looked tired and pale, and his arm was wrapped in bandages Nyx recognized as those used when blood was drawn. “Do you know where that is?”</p>
<p>It had been a quiet day, where only a nervous young scientist had delivered what he had learnt was food. Nyx nodded, curious about this other man’s interest in him. And he knew that coast, vaguely. He knew the busy waters and the human city that covered an entire island larger than the collective islands of Galahd where he was raised. He remembered the deep ports and the strange magic that had tickled as he ventured past it to explore the sunken treasures and trinkets left in those murky waters. It had been an adventure when he was younger, before Selena tried to follow him every where. </p>
<p>So he nodded. And the young man smiled. </p>
<p>“If you were in Lucis, could you find your way home?”</p>
<p>Another nod. Another smile. </p>
<p>The next day, the young man returned. Still pallid and tired, a redness to his eyes that was not just exhaustion or pain. He talked of Lucis again, and the rivers Nyx had never swam. The wide rivers that travelled to deep lakes, the shallow canyon waters that cut across the kingdoms, the twists and turn of the rivers in the Crown City, shadowed by buildings and bridges. Nyx smiled as he listened, the man’s voice more pleasant than the hum of the filters on the prison. The affection in his voice more real than the sterile white around them. </p>
<p>Nyx wanted to ask, as the visits continued, what he was doing in this place. He wanted to ask the young man his name and more about his home. He wanted to ask if there was news of the Galahd Islands, and the reefs that had thrived before the invasion. He wanted to know if his attempt at distraction had been in vain, if he had been caught and trapped for nothing and if his people— his family— were locked away like he was. He wanted to know where he was and what was happening, if there were plans the humans had  or if he would be killed when they had finished poking and podding at him. </p>
<p>Instead, he stayed silent and watching. </p>
<p>And looking forward to these curious little visits. </p>
<p>He learnt that the young man was named Noctis, and from idle talk between the young scientists in their white robes (coats, he learnt, gashed with the same red emblem of entwined wyverns as everything else in this place) he understood that Noctis was a prisoner too. A human prisoner but like him, tested and prodded and watched. The scientists all said that Noctis couldn’t walk, that the stress of the tests and an accident and his magic rendered him bound to his chair. </p>
<p>Nyx smiled a little wider when he watched his new friend walk around the desks laden with tools and equipment one day where his chair couldn’t go. Noctis opened the mechanical blinds for him, to see the fields of white— a living colour, opposed to the sterility of the prison they were in— stretch to the distant mountains rising like teeth on the horizon. The horror of his environment was eased by the mischief of the young man moving so easily where others couldn’t see. </p>
<p>The trick was a secret they shared. </p>
<p>Nyx wanted to return the favour. </p>
<p>“Are you alright?”</p>
<p>Noctis visited when he shouldn’t; when he should be resting or sleeping or recovering from whatever their captors had done to him. This visit, there was still red dotting the bandages on his arms, and a tired look to his eyes. The air seemed alive around him— a dull pulse of fading power that reminded Nyx of the shimmering barriers around the distant Crown City he hadn’t visited in years. He had dozed a few moments after coming in for his visit, slouched in the ever present chair as he moved it closer to the tank where Nyx resided. He had moved close enough to rest his forehead against the cool glass, and Nyx could see the scars that had been made by mistreatment peeking around the bandages and from just beneath the shirt Noctis wore. </p>
<p>Noctis looked at him in surprise, Nyx having moved the unlocked grating of his tank aside to lean over. To rest a hand on Noctis’ hair in a gesture that was meant to comfort— that he had used for friends and family before checking the scrapes and cuts and bruises they gathered from hunts and chases through the reefs. </p>
<p>“You talk,” Noctis said, a smile on his lips. </p>
<p>“I talk,” Nyx agreed. “Are you okay? What did they do? You never say.”</p>
<p>“They try to steal my magic, to use it against my people. Or break it.”</p>
<p>“Magic?” Nyx felt a warmth in the air as Noctis lifted a hand to conjure a small flame in his palm. It danced for a moment with his movements before vanishing in a puff as Noctis closed his fist around it. Nyx offered a smile in response, hand moving through the dark hair. “You could burn this place down.”</p>
<p>“I will,” Noctis said, his eyes hard. “Soon.”</p>
<p>They stayed like that for a while longer, before Noctis had to leave. The next day, Nyx told Noctis about the ocean. About the colourful shallows where the reef had been his home— the tunnels and nests carved beneath the living structure shaped by the currents and creatures that had built it over the centuries— and the way he had been taken. Over the days he told Noctis of his friends and Selena, the cities buried deep in the dark where the only light had been the bioluminescent fish and algae, or the warm burn of smoking vents. He told Noctis about the cold cities, beneath the ceilings of ice that stretched to the horizon and sheltered those people from cold storms, but had icy fingers stretching down to kill everything the cold touched. </p>
<p>Noctis said that the leader of their captors, the scientist Besithia, had listed him as mute. Had reports and papers scattered through the lab shelves that likened him to an animal. </p>
<p>“Real animals have fangs,” Nyx muttered when Noctis told him, offering a toothy grin. “And a lot less patience.”</p>
<p>“I’ll get you out,” Noctis promised. “It won’t be much longer.”</p>
<p>“What are you waiting for?”</p>
<p>“A friend. You’d like him.”</p>
<p>Noctis did not visit the next day, but the one after her struggled to his feet with a smile and dismissal of Nyx’s concerns. Something was changing, and it twisted in Nyx’s gut like a dread. Nyx reached out for Noctis, leaning over the edge of his tank, gripping the young man’s hands as he told him about the freedom in the oceans, the family that was waiting. And of the small fishing villages, the little homes along the shore with their long piers and old boats. He told Noctis everything he knew about how the humans there lived— just as free as he was in the ocean nearby. </p>
<p>“You sound like you want me to live there, Nyx.”</p>
<p>“Maybe I do.”</p>
<p>The visits stopped for a week. </p>
<p>Nyx churned the waters in agitation when the white clad scientists came. He refused to co-operate, forcing them to drug him to get close, to do their prodding and tests. He searched their clothing for drops of blood or dark hair that might suggest they had been with Noctis. He listened intently to their chatter, staring them down as his stomach rolled with dread. He glared at them as they came close, as they stood in spaces where Noctis had been. He heard them talk about Lucians at the borders, of threats of war creeping close, of the measures taken to hide the labs where it was nestled in the mountains between a gaping great maw of jagged peaks. </p>
<p>And then they brought in the Scourge. </p>
<p>It was a black ichor, contained in a sealed jar. It moved and pulsed when they heated the glass or sent little shocks through the container. During the day, he could see its host properly; a dormant little hermit crab, dripping the dark stuff around it as its pincers seemed to move of their own accord to pull the oozing, dripping ichor toward itself, a scrabbling of slick and slime pulling the living darkness close to hide in like a nest of sand. At night, when the scientists left, it scratched and scrabbled at the smooth glass of the container, making small noises and clicks and fixing its black eyes on him from nearly across the room. </p>
<p>He had seen the infected like this before— the creatures that lingered in some state of stupor until the Scourge twisted them beyond all recognition and they dissolved in the sunlight— but never so close. Never in a containment like this, waiting for some escape like he was. Beating itself against the glass of its own cage in a way Nyx had wanted to do since waking up in a cage as well. </p>
<p>Whatever had been planned for the pitiful creature was lost before the end of the week. </p>
<p>A flashing light in any language was a warning. An alert. </p>
<p>Nyx thought of the creatures in his reef, on the deeper waters, that flashed their warnings along their skin. Rings and lines of desperate warning that an attack was imminent, that there was danger and poison. He also knew it— waking as he did to the reverberation of sirens and pulse of light through his water— as the last stand of a dying creature beating against a spear in its soft undersides. Shifting in his water to watch the door, where the alarms had been muffled by the heavy metal and glass, he hoped that a sharp and barbed spear had been shoved into the belly of this human machine. </p>
<p>When the door opened and the wheeled chair was pushed through, he had almost hoped to see Noctis. He had hoped to see the human he had grown attached to— those mischievous eyes and smile— and trusted that Noctis had something to do with the chaos of the alarms.</p>
<p>Instead was an older man in dark clothes, his hair cropped close and a long sword in one hand. Nyx let his hope steel him at the sight of the stranger pushing the chair in, his mouth a thin line as he prepared to fight against another capture, another helpless flight away from what he knew. </p>
<p>“Noctis sent me,” the man said, his gruff voice clipped and stern, as cold as the steel in his other hand. Nyx curled for a fight, even as the cage above him was opened. </p>
<p>The man hesitated, at a loss as Nyx didn’t just jump to his rescue. He added, “Noctis is just outside. He said your name was Nyx?”</p>
<p>It was framed as a question, but Nyx knew that it was a reassurance. He stretched and eyed the chair, pulling himself from the opened tank and to the cold floor. The man offered a hand to help him, but Nyx pointed to his dagger still sealed away like a specimen on one of the shelves. “My dagger.”</p>
<p>The man turned to retrieve it, ignoring the little daemon beating itself against the jar it was trapped in. Nyx pulled himself into the wheeled chair and coiled his tail against himself to keep from dragging too far. The sound of glass shattering was lost in the blaring of the alarms and the beat of booted feet rushing in the hallway, but the dagger was pressed into his hand before the man sheathed his weapon and started to move them out of the lab. </p>
<p>The noise was worse out there. The mechanical pulse of light and noise was punctuated by shouting, and what Nyx thought sounded like boats striking rocks— the tearing, hissing, and dispersion of machine— along some other distant and formerly sterile corridor. He clutched his dagger close as the man pushed him closer to the noise. Closer to the source of cold air that had started to make its way into the hallways. </p>
<p>He spotted Noctis first, a clunky sword in his hand, leaning against a larger young man who reminded Nyx vaguely of Libertus. He looked tired, drained, and Nyx straightened in his seat, cursing his dependence on the man moving him. Legs would be useful in this fight, he thought. The remains of empty armour and machines were scattered through the hallway, a black ichor no longer living dissipating from Noctis’ sword like steam. </p>
<p>Noctis smiled his tired, weary smile as they came close. “Hi, Nyx.”</p>
<p>The man pushing him didn’t slow down, barking orders to dark-clad men and women fanning out through the hallways as they moved. Noctis kept pace, and Nyx reached for him, smelling the blood in the air with the smoke and death and cold. </p>
<p>There was no tank of water in the transport the had reached, no cage to keep them both in. But Nyx moved from the chair all the same, still clutching his dagger, and curled around Noctis as the strange vehicle was sealed up against the dark around them. Against the chaos being left behind. Noctis’ sword had vanished in a shower of crystalline energy before they were put together, the young man he had been leaning against in the escape setting his own massive sword aside as they started to move. Netting was placed around them to keep them in place— like cargo, Nyx thought— and he refused to leave his dagger out of reach in case he needed to cut them both free. </p>
<p>“It’s okay, Nyx,” Noctis muttered; “They’re mine.”</p>
<p>“Yours?”</p>
<p>“Highness,” the gruff voice of his rescuer cut between them, and Nyx let his surprise show at the title; “hang on.”</p>
<p>They had moved fast. The transport plunged into darkness until they finally came to a rest a few hours later. When the back had opened, like the maw of some beast— it had reminded Nyx of the broken ships he had once explored, and what they may have looked like when whole— it was dawn. They had travelled across that white plain Nyx had seen from the windows of the lab; the smoke and flame left in the wake of their escape a plume rising in the distance behind them. There was the memory of a turbulent trip, no matter how they were secured— jostling violently in the vehicle as something rocked them like waves crashing in a storm. Nyx had felt sick to his stomach, and curled closer to Noctis. </p>
<p>The humans left them alone, the large young man— Gladio, as Nyx was learning— crouching close, ready to rush to Noctis’ side. Or fetch them food, as Nyx had just found out. Blankets had been piled against them to ward off the cold, and Nyx felt Noctis’ hand move along his tail beneath them. </p>
<p>“Are you okay out of water? A few hours at least? Maybe a day?”</p>
<p>“You’re nobility?”</p>
<p>“Didn’t I tell you?”</p>
<p>“No,” Nyx slipped an arm around Noctis to pull him closer; “You don’t seem like a noble.”</p>
<p>“Would you believe I’m a prince?”</p>
<p>“No.”</p>
<p>“Good. Don’t treat me like one.”</p>
<p>“As you say, Highness.”</p>
<p>He smiled against Noctis’ shoulder at the annoyed slap to his tail before the curious petting resumed. When Gladio returned, it was to bring food and tell them the plans; they were less than a day from the coast. The boat waiting for them was easily defended. And Nyx could be released there, free to slip back to his waters and make his own way home. </p>
<p>Nyx nodded his understanding, but already planned to follow in the wake of whatever boat carried Noctis away from this cold land. He would feel safer with Noctis on the water. Where he could be watched and defended more easily, if Nyx could move fast enough to find where his people had disappeared to. </p>
<p>As they moved again, Nyx muttered; “I don’t even know where we are.”</p>
<p>“Niflheim. Near Tenebrae.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know what either of that is.”</p>
<p>“You know Lucis though.”</p>
<p>“Lucis was interesting. My waters were near Galahd.”</p>
<p>Noctis smiled in the safety of the dark; “Do you want to follow the boat? They’ll bring me to Caem first.”</p>
<p>“The lighthouse,” Nyx nodded, familiar with the coastal landmark. He traced the map against Noctis’ arm from memory. He recalled the curve and coves of that area, and where the Lucian coast would lead him further away from his safe waters. “I know it.”</p>
<p>“Come there? Even if you don’t follow the boat.”</p>
<p>“I’ll follow you.” He folded Noctis’ hand around his dagger with a smile. “I’ll follow.”</p>
<p>Slipping back into the wide waters of the ocean was like coming home to Nyx. The currents wanted to pull him out to the open waters, free from the cold and snow capped rocks of the shore that sheltered the boat from view. Once back, Nyx stretched first, examined the damage done to his tail when his captors had cut at him and peeled away scales. He ran his hands along himself, felt the laziness that had set in from being contained slip away with each stroke to smooth over what was intact and still himself. </p>
<p>He was home. Even if it wasn’t his own waters, Nyx was home, and free. </p>
<p>He slipped deeper beneath the waves, scattering the strange fish in search of something familiar. Some indication of where he was or where to go to get back to his family. The waters were grey and cold and strange, the weeds a feast for urchins but not much else. He moved deeper into the dark waters, following the current that promised a route to warmer waters and familiar life. </p>
<p>When he surfaced, the boat was gone. It’s wake a ripple he could barely follow. </p>
<p>But he knew the destination.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Lovers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Prompted at my Tumblr for the Mermaid Tarot challenge. </p>
<p>The Lovers: joining together even if it means a sacrifice of one world for another. </p>
<p>In this tarot, i’s suggested as a reconciliation of one person— a mer longing for and making a choice— to trade the life they knew for the life they wanted. And that’s what I went with for Nyx. Rather than the surface reading of lovers as two independent people.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The coast of Accordo was not an ideal place to settle. It was warm, and safe between the numerous little islands and spits of land, but it was populated. Every stretch of the verdant hills and steep chalk cliffs had humans on it. Even the small pockets of coves and caverns that seemed safe had a shepherd guiding a flock or some lone fisherman and his family. The rocky islands on the edges of the larger landmass were barely better. But Nyx found that his people had made it as best they could. </p>
<p>When Nyx arrived, scarred, exhausted, weaponless, he had been guided to his family in the shadow of a rocky shoreline. Where the tide pools had gained human shrines and a crumbling image of Bismarck pierced the sky with its iron horn. Offerings were left and washed away back into the sea by the changing tides, leaving bounties in the tide pools for the pilgrims’ return. Nyx found that his people could take advantage of the offerings— the knives and food, the totems made of hooks and carved traps that just needed some care. </p>
<p>Nyx had slept long hours in the safety of a familiar embrace; Selena had curled around him and eased him off with stories of their escape, their resettlement. Of the life that was being built off the coast of Accordo, where the shallows they favoured were left untouched and unexplored by the human’s search for bigger fish out in the open. </p>
<p>Crowe and Libertus took turns poking and prodding him, goading him back to himself where he could explore their new home. It was the northern portion of Accordo, opposite the traffic of Altissia. It was quiet save for the pilgrims tending the shrine and tide pools, and the fishermen from a nearby village coming out with their nets. He was coaxed into claiming a portion of the new village, into finding a new space of his own. </p>
<p>He learnt that most of their little settlement was those who escaped from the reef. Others went deeper into the darkness, where the cities were raised with the spires of the vents deep in the dark. He learnt that some had moved towards Tenebrae— the green and forested coast that had always seemed so empty in the stories of it. And one of two whose names Nyx recognized followed the rivers inland, to the fabled lakes of Lucis by way of its deep rivers cutting across the kingdom. </p>
<p>Nyx smiled at that thought. Of settling in Lucis. </p>
<p>Here, his family had settled in the natural caves deep beneath the islands. Their warren was a maze, twisting and dark, with rooms like pockets bubbled out before the island had even formed. They glistened with polished volcanic stone, the vents dormant and cold craters now serving as comfortable nests hidden from the world. The stones that had been cleared away were stacked outside for now, given to the artists among them who would carve and chisel their way through it all later. When they had finished settling. </p>
<p>Chips of obsidian had been harvested from the caves, and other human weapons from the fallen fleets that had been dashed against the shores. Libertus had made a home in one of them— where a cabin with a human bed had been opened to the warmer surface waters, and the rest left in shade and silence— slowly being claimed by the fish and new reef the had managed to salvage from their old home. Libertus had always been like him— desperate for a view of the world around them both.</p>
<p>Selena and Crowe liked the caves. The cold and mystery of them. </p>
<p>Nyx liked it, but wasn’t at rest. He couldn’t settle without a view of the surface. His scarred tail a reminder of what he had promised. It had only been two weeks since he lost track of the boat that had carried Noctis. When he had been left in its fading wake while he regained his freedom. He had tried to follow; had tried to keep his promise. But he wasn’t as fast as a boat, and the ocean was big. </p>
<p>He had stumbled across his family by accident, resting in the lively waters near Accordo when Libertus found him and dragged him back. </p>
<p>It had only been two weeks since getting back everything he had lost— family, a home, his freedom— and he was still thinking of Noctis. He thought of the stories of Lucis that had been shared, of the shining city, and wondered if there was a way to reach where ever it was royalty was kept in there. He imagined another cage, something as isolated as where they had been kept by the white coated scientists. </p>
<p>He could see the lighthouse of Caem at night when he watched the waters from a perch above the surface, the glittering star calling him. The peace of the secluded waves and the distraction of the shining prize beyond the open waters a haven from the nightmares of labs and scalpels and humans in white robes splashed with red entwined wyverns. </p>
<p>He itched to start his search; to fulfill his promise. And the long stretch of Lucian coast— dark save for the gleaming star of the distant lighthouse— was calling him to make sure that Noctis had made it home safe as well. That his curious human was safe and protected.</p>
<p>But it had been two weeks. Noctis couldn’t still be there. And he had already broken his promise. </p>
<p>It as the third week when Nyx made his trip out to the edges of his new home’s territory. He had fastened his new daggers to his side, and took a woven bag that Selena had just finished. He swam past the dead waters of Angelgard, and the busy cove of Galdin with its glowing lights and constant ferries churning the clear water with their wake. He slipped along the edge of the dark shores toward the elevated human star of the lighthouse, and pretended that he didn’t hear Libertus scolding his idiocy every time he paused to get his bearings where passing humans could see him and try to catch him again. </p>
<p>He ignored the internal voice of his more sensible friends and pulled himself up to the rocks of the low shore when the tide fell. He gathered shellfish clinging to the glistening rocks before slipping back to the safety of the water. Tide pools were raided for smaller fish he used to lure in larger fish to catch as a gift. Every prize was slipped into Selena’s bag as he moved on, already thinking of the small feast that could be made with what he had gathered. </p>
<p>He hoped humans accepted food as apologies. </p>
<p>There was a dock at Caem, buried beneath the cliffs and laid out like a boardwalk stretching across the stony shore in the long shadow of the lighthouse overhead. Signs of recent human activity were everywhere; a large tackle box was tucked safely in a nook of protective rock, a cooler overturned and cleaned by its side, litter gathered together in a bin Nyx would see was wedged in a way that would not allow it to be tipped on accident. Traps were set along the winding piers, tethered to the old wood that Nyx could see had been replaced multiple times based on the uneven appearance. Some traps skirted the top waters as nets, catching the small silver flashes of the little fish that schooled in the clear coastal water.  He raided the traps that were weighed low against the sand and stone of the shallows as he left the pier, resetting them once he had claimed the best prizes for Noctis from the lobsters that had wandered into them.</p>
<p>He kept close to the steep and stony cliffs, following the strange twists and turns of the current that hinted at something deeper beneath the cliffs that was only partially opened to the sea. Any real settlement was high above the water’s edge, where the spire of the lighthouse seemed to pierce the clouds above like the horn of Bismarck back at the small island off the edge of Accordo. But there was a sheltered cove buried beneath the cliffs, where an old dock still stood as a facade of rotting wood over a base of steel. </p>
<p>Sealed doors stopped the flow of water further back in the cave, but Nyx could tell that there was more hidden deeper beneath the already solid stone of the Lucian cliffs. Whatever was buried beneath was steel and reinforced, and locked away so Nyx couldn’t even find a crack between the sealed doors and the stone beneath it. Instead he settled beneath the dock and watched the fish come and go as he had— poking at the metal of the doors— before there was any clear sign of human activity. </p>
<p>A room had been cut from the cliff, and a column raised near the back, chiselled wall. Large boxes, overflowing with parts and scraps of whatever machines that may have been gathered in the cove. Nyx could identify some salvage, but not all of it. And he didn’t recognize the young blond who danced in to pick through the pieces of scraps and broken parts.  </p>
<p>Other than the young man and the clunky noise of the column at the back of the room, the place was almost always quiet. </p>
<p>Almost. </p>
<p>He watched from between the planks of the dock as the young blond— Noctis’ age, he guessed— danced his way around the small space, humming as he picked at some piece or another. There was no boat at the little dock— any vessel that had once been there long since moved— but there was this boy, who might be helpful. </p>
<p>Nyx didn’t think he was the one setting the traps outside in the rocky and low shore. Nor had he been there when they had escaped Niflheim. So Nyx watched him first for a day.</p>
<p>He watched as the young man fiddled with the scrap on the low table. As tools were scattered across the small room and the heavy sounds of the strange column announced his departure and arrival every few hours. Hours in silence where Nyx debated testing the boy’s helpfulness. </p>
<p>In a gambit, Nyx left his present on the dock, one of his two daggers pinning it in place after using it to carve a name in the wooden facade. There was a small feast in that bag, and he hoped he was right in thinking that Noctis would only let an ally stay in this place. </p>
<p>The next time the boy arrived, Nyx heard the clatter of whatever scrap and tools he was carrying fall. He peeked through the planks to watch the boy stumble and stutter, examining the carving before rushing back to the column.</p>
<p>Even if nothing came of it, Nyx could say that he had the entertainment of seeing the boy grin and dash off, boots scraping against the uneven steps in his excitement. </p>
<p>The next arrival was a much more familiar figure. </p>
<p>Noctis was down in the little room within half an hour, flanked by the bulk of Gladio. There was the blond, and then another young man— tall and bespectacled— trailing after but first to lift up the bag of fish. </p>
<p>“Nyx?” Noctis approached the edge of the dock, kneeling to examine the calm waters. </p>
<p>He wasn’t slow or weary, nor tired or injured. Nyx noted that like this, surrounded by friends and in his element, Noctis seemed strong. </p>
<p>Nyx moved quickly, pulling himself up and out of the water. He seated himself on the edge of the dock, taking the place of the gift he had left that had been claimed by the tall young man with glasses. He didn’t spare the others a look as he grinned to Noctis; “I’m sorry I missed you. You were gone when I surfaced.”</p>
<p>“Well, I suppose we know who has been stealing from your traps, Noct,” said the man with glasses. The fish and shellfish were spread out across the low table for examination. “And this settles our earlier discussion about dinner.”</p>
<p>Noctis ignored the comment and knelt on the dock next to Nyx, grinning. “Are you okay? Where were you?”</p>
<p>Nyx settled easily, happy to see Noctis smiling and watching the small movements of his tail as it trailed down in the water. He knew that his friends would scold him for letting the other humans see him, get him out of the water after what had happened. But here was Noctis, and he was smiling. </p>
<p>Noctis’ hand rested on Nyx’s own and the relief that Nyx had been waiting for since finding the settlement just north of Accordo washed over him. </p>
<p>“I found my people,” Nyx said. “But I made a promise to make sure you were okay.”</p>
<p>“Then perhaps,” the tall young man stood, gathering the fish again; “you should join us for dinner.”</p>
<p>New plans were made— a haven just beyond the cove, where the high tide all but lapped the edges of the glowing stone plateau— to enjoy a meal together and figure out the next steps from there. The next moves. Nyx slipped back into the water as Noctis and his friends prepared to return back up to the surface— to where the settlement on the cliffs were, well above the waterline where Nyx couldn’t follow. </p>
<p>By the time night fell, Nyx was glad to see the comforting blue glow of the haven shining bright against the dark cliffs. The arch of the bridge beyond crossed the wide mouth of one of Lucis’ great rivers, and Nyx had spent the afternoon entertaining himself in the changing waters swirling through the silt laden cross currents, wondering about the river and how far inland it could take him. </p>
<p>As the sun set, he settled on the pier by the haven and waited. </p>
<p>There was a farm to the Lucian coast that Nyx had not considered before. Galahd had all been steep cliffs and long stretches of inviting beaches— the sort of white and fine sands that humans seemed to like— but it’s real charm for him was the reef and the underwater world just hiding a few kilometres from the shoreline. There had been great canyons beneath the waves, peaks and valleys that were just as living as the green mountains he could see from his excursions outside of his little village home. Accordo was much the same; a hidden world of mountains and vents and their warren of caves just beyond the reach of humans. Only their mountains now were raised to piece the water above, creating the islands and breaks where humans built their shrines to protect their waters. </p>
<p>Lucis seemed different. Watching the shore as it seemed to rise and fall as the land stretched on, Nyx wondered what was beyond that little stretch of shore he was used to. He wondered what that shining city he hadn’t visited in years was like deeper inland than he could go. </p>
<p>He wondered what sort of land had created Noctis. </p>
<p>Noctis was smiling as he followed some rocky and narrow trail down from the road. Nyx hadn’t been able to follow the full approach, but he had heard the scrape and shuffle of their boots, the drag of whatever they were carrying. The haven glowed in the dusk; the shine of the holy marks, older than any human Oracle and kingdom, a comfort as the sun set. Nyx knew that the haven would shine like a beacon through the night. That the cold blue of its magic was mirrored beneath the waves in its own way— a shine that followed ancient gods like Bismarck during his long voyages through the stretch of quiet sea. </p>
<p>Nyx watched as Noctis’ friend set up their camp. As they cooked the meal Nyx had delivered to their doorstep. </p>
<p>Noctis sat with him, and listened— like in the lab— as the stories of home came flowing out. They shared their journeys— an ebb for Lucis, a flow for Accordo— until the world around them had washed away. For a moment, Nyx felt like he had come home. There was no cold and sterile lab around him, no constriction on his movement or cage to keep him in place. He moved easily, illustrating his harrowing journey (mostly boring stretches of cold water until the current took him to Accordo) with gestures and movement, slipping into the water easily and shifting from one side of Noctis to the other. </p>
<p>Noctis told him about the boat ride. About the day or two afterwards spent confined to his room at the great house in Caem while city doctors came and went with just as many tests as their captors. </p>
<p>Nyx grinned as he talked about his sister’s home— the little pocket carved from a dormant vent, with its many routes beneath the island. He spoke of the graveyard of ships that were still being explored, and the home Libertus was carving from them. “I wish you could see it.”</p>
<p>“I’m not sure your family would be happy,” the tall man said when he delivered a plate to them both. Nyx had learnt that his name was Ignis, and he had been the one to finally cast the Lucian doctors out and let Noctis recover with some sense of freedom; “that you’re giving away all their secrets.”</p>
<p>“I’ll just have to give away some of ours,” Noctis countered, still smiling in the light of the stars and haven and the fire. “Too bad you can’t see Lucis. It’s not all caves and cities. There’s a forest on our way home where the kingdom’s largest Chocobo Ranch has been set up for years. We’re stopping there on our way back.”</p>
<p>“And there’s the Disc,” Ignis offered. “We’ll be stopping there. I’d like to see it.”</p>
<p>“We could swing by Lestallum,” Gladio had sat himself at the edge of the haven hours ago, where Noctis was within his view at all times. Where he could let his legs hang off the plateau the same way Nyx let his tail trail in the waters. “The street food is supposed to be better than the Crown City.”</p>
<p>Prompto offered is own enthusiastic nod to all of the plans; “And top it all off with Hammerhead, to see the goddess herself.”</p>
<p>“Goddess?” Nyx asked, poking through the human filler on his plate to find the fish. </p>
<p>“He means Cindy,” Noctis said with his own smile. “A mechanic. I wish you could come.”</p>
<p>“I could meet you in your city. There’s a coast there, and rivers.”</p>
<p>“You’d better. But it’s not the same.”</p>
<p>Nyx knew it wasn’t. There were wonders in Lucis. He had told them about the people who had travelled inland by the rivers, heard about the Vesperpool at the end of that journey, of Lucinia Sound in the northern edge of the kingdom. They told him about the views from there— sunken temples and marshlands that were isolated from the rest of the world by hills and forests— and places they hadn’t explored. There was talk of Galdin, with its sparkling waters and white beach that just begged for days to be spent out on a dock with a line according to Noctis. </p>
<p>He had his islands with their hidden caves and passages. There was the kelp forest further out from the shipping lanes, where it was quiet and calm. Where the sunlight was green as it filtered through the wide weed leaves, and the small fish that lived there darted between the long and wide stalks. There was Altissia if he was feeling adventurous; its canals a web to explore, a maze of ruins beneath the surface where the gods slept. The people above oblivious to the life beneath them. </p>
<p>There were even the cities deeper down, if Nyx ever tired of the surface. </p>
<p>But he had never seen a forest before. Or whatever this Disc was. He knew that a hammerhead was a type of shark his people tended to avoid, and that there was rumour of a city on a cliff high above the deep river canyons his people had explored. Nyx wondered what those wonders might be like. </p>
<p>“When were you leaving?” He asked, stomach churning with the possibilities. Caem was a wonder itself— it’s sealed door beneath the cliffs a mystery— but it wasn’t going to hold Noctis forever.</p>
<p>“A week? I think we agreed.” Noctis set his mostly empty plate down. “You’re sticking around, right?”</p>
<p>“I just need to see my family for something in another day or two. Then I’m all yours, little star.” Nyx pretended he didn’t see the way Noctis blushed with the nickname that had slipped between them. He wouldn’t have taken it back if he could. This Lucian Prince had guided him home. Like the stars he was haloed by at the edge of the pier like this. </p>
<p>He slipped away in the night. </p>
<p>Leviathan slept beneath Altissia, but she didn’t like humans. Nyx knew that. She would lend her power to those she found worthy, but she was as merciless as the sea to those who weren’t born to it. </p>
<p>Libertus said he was an idiot. Crowe actually hit him for his stupidity. </p>
<p>Selena said it was all romantic. </p>
<p>Bismarck was a much more forgiving deity. And his gifts were more plentiful when he was in a good mood. </p>
<p>His friends had agreed to help him. </p>
<p>It took the better part of a day to find the great whale on his path. The soft glow of his magic summoning schools of fish to his wake. Nyx wasted no time in catching up, in meeting the god eye-to-eye, and pleading his case. He was reminded of the sacrifices he would need to make if he wanted this, if he chose one world over another. </p>
<p>And it was a sacrifice. Just like Bismarck sacrificed his fish to keep the humans above fed and happy. But greed would ensure his gifts were withdrawn. Nyx needed to be sure in his choice, and couldn’t hope to get away with stealing both worlds from the god before him. </p>
<p>It as three days in Caem before Noctis saw any difference in his routine. Three days of watching the ocean and returning to the docks beneath the lighthouse. The world had shifted in a matter of months, and now he was dreading going home to the Citadel. Back to his own cage. </p>
<p>He wondered about Nyx as he started down the long path to the boardwalk in the shadow of the lighthouse. He hated the thought of missing the man again, of not saying goodbye as he was forced to return to the real world. Prompto teased him for blushing when he thought about Nyx— for keeping the obsidian dagger the man had left behind with the meals he had brought as an apology— for the rambling and defensive denials that came spilling out when questioned about his friendship. </p>
<p>It was just friendship. Noctis insisted. They had been prisoners together. They had found each other where neither of them should be. And Nyx had a home to go back to now. He had his freedom and his family, everything he would have wanted. </p>
<p>And he was sitting on the edge of the docks, around a pile of discarded clothing drying in the early sun. Noctis hadn’t realized he had stopped where he was until Nyx smiled up at him. </p>
<p>“I might need some help with the pants, little star.”</p>
<p>Nyx was there, with two very human looking legs— scarred and tanned like the rest of him, the fading mark of scales looking like the curl of an intricate tattoo spreading down to very human feet— out of the water. His hands were paused on the buttons of his newly acquired shirt, and his drying hair less wild now that portions of the unruly locks were braided and held in place with bone beads that seemed to have a faint and familiar magic to them. Noctis watched as the man smiled to him, and stood, just as confident and powerful as he was in the water. </p>
<p>“Nyx? What—?” Noctis tried to form thoughts. Tried to both rush to help cover the man up as he had been asked, and set his fishing equipment down with care. “What did you do?”</p>
<p>“I made a choice, Noctis. I want to see this kingdom of yours.” Nyx leaned on him for support. “I want to be with you. If you’ll have me.”</p>
<p>Noctis beamed, a relief to a fear that he hadn’t admitted to himself washing over him. He had been dreading leaving the coast, of going home and losing what he loved, of facing the world without the idea of ever seeing Nyx again. “Only if you want me too.”</p>
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